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Catholic Teachings Help "Green" the Main Campus

January 11, 2010

Saint Leo University continues to
stress its value of “responsible stewardship” of resources,
including natural resources, in 2010. There is plenty of evidence
of this theme at the university’s lakefront main campus, where the
community is urged to recycle, to conserve electricity and water,
and to enjoy the beautiful natural surroundings.

As a Catholic university, Saint Leo is guided by specific
teachings to care for the environment, or to be “green,” Professor
William Ditewig explained at a widely attended employee gathering
recently. And while many of the university’s students and employees
are non-Catholics, it is important for all to understand the
principles guiding the university community, he said.

Catholic teachings ask followers to care for the world around us,
Ditewig said. As an example, he noted a prayer written by Saint
Francis of Assisi that draws a connection between God’s creatures
and the natural world. Ditewig, who is a Catholic deacon as a well
as a faculty theologian, paraphrased the message in modern terms
this way: “We have been given all of creation as a gift from God,
and we are called to be stewards of that creation, and not merely
‘users’ of it. We have a responsibility to take great care of
that gift of creation and pass it along to those who follow
us.”

Current religious leaders, including Pope Benedict XVI, have also
called for humankind to care better for the environment. Ditewig
reminded the gathering of the Pope’s New Year’s Day address. Pope
Benedict called for a reduction of consumption and pollution by
richer peoples, so as to alleviate the stresses of worldwide
pollution, the loss of agricultural lands, and the threat of
climate displacement. The Pope considers those stresses to be
threats to peace among peoples in lands vying for shrinking natural
resources.

University President Arthur F. Kirk, Jr., noted the university
community takes this ethical guidance seriously, and urged everyone
to continue to look for ways to be more environmentally conscious.
The university has just received a grant that will allow it to
monitor electricity usage at main campus buildings starting this
year, he noted, and that information will be used to promote
conservation.

The university’s six core values, along with responsible
stewardship, are: excellence, respect, integrity, personal
development, and community. They are drawn from the Catholic
Benedictine tradition of the university’s founders.